From Sinewaves to Physiologically-Adaptive Soundscapes: The Evolving Relationship Between Sound and Emotion in Video Gam
This chapter examines the dynamic and evolving relationship between sound and emotion within the context of video games. How sound in games has been utilised to both infer and evoke emotion is discussed, commencing with an historical review that traces ba
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From Sinewaves to Physiologically-Adaptive Soundscapes: The Evolving Relationship Between Sound and Emotion in Video Games Tom A. Garner
Abstract This chapter examines the dynamic and evolving relationship between sound and emotion within the context of video games. How sound in games has been utilised to both infer and evoke emotion is discussed, commencing with an historical review that traces back to video games’ humble beginnings. As we move towards the present day this chapter looks at how biofeedback technology, that can facilitate the control and procedural generation of game sound content by way of player-emotion, is transforming the lateral affective interplay between player and video game into something more circular.
The Power of Sound to Evoke Emotion During Video Gameplay Sound is a critical component to consider when developing emotionality as it is directly associated with the user’s experience of emotions [1, 56]. It has been posited previously that sound carries more emotional content than any other part of a computer game [50]. Grimshaw and colleagues [29] discovered that players felt significant decreases in immersion and gameplay comfort when audio was removed from gameplay; an assertion also made by Jørgensen [37] who, via observations and conversations with players, revealed that an absence of sound caused a reduction in engagement such that “the fictional world seems to disappear and [ : : : ] the game is reduced to rules and game mechanics” (3). There are many acoustic and psychoacoustic properties of sound that could be investigated as to their affectinducing potential. Some are quantitative, in that they can be objectively measured and applied to synthesis and audio processing. For example, Cho and colleagues [13] provided evidence that pressure level, loudness and sharpness of a sound can directly affect emotional valence and intensity. Other properties are more qualitative
T.A. Garner () School of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 K. Karpouzis, G.N. Yannakakis (eds.), Emotion in Games, Socio-Affective Computing 4, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41316-7_12
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and relate to the interpreted meaning of sound. They can be influenced by factors such as culture, experience, context and expectation. Based upon the recent developments in games technology, there is certainly an argument to be made as to the significant power of sound to facilitate affective gaming by way of immersion. Sound possesses an innate ability to surround the player as it infuses into (and resonates around) their physical space. The resultant immersion fundamentally supports the affective potential of game content as the process of bringing the player and the game world closer together imbues the content with much greater meaning [36, 64]. The entertainment technology industries have made several attempts to equal this particular strength of sound in visual hardware. Recent attempts a
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